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Recently, I was talking with HarvestR. He revealed that KSP is about to undergo a massive change in the development process. I thought that it would be good to share my questions and his answers about this upcoming change.

KSP 1.2: Update Questions!

~~~

Below are some questions I had about the new update, followed by HarvestR's answers.

"I thought you would release 1.0 next! Why did you decide to release 1.2 instead?"

As you may well know, 1.0 is a critical update that shows that our game is polished and ready for a wide release. Instead of releasing this update now, or merely staying in beta (more on that later), we have decided to craftily release 1.2, 1.3, etc. until our game is ready for 1.0. This was a difficult decision, but hopefully it is understandable.

~~~

"What new features are being released for... erm... 1.2?"

One of our hallmarks of this new update is our increased respect for the advertising industry. KSP will now implement pop-up ads after recovering or before launching a vessel. These will be tailored to each KSP player's individual wants and needs, based on their browser history, the documents on their computer, and by intermittently taking pictures of them through their webcams.

Our team has been working on adding unpredictability to 1.2. We are introducing a 'random failure' and a 'Kraken' aspect to KSP. The former will cause various failures to intermittently occur on rockets and aircraft, just like in real life. The latter will introduce an exciting "jumpscare" layer to the game. Occasionally the screen will go black, followed by the Kraken loudly appearing and violently 'eating the camera.' Both of these features will be toggleable for a small fee.

Other features can also be purchased form the KSP store or the game itself, such as more than one savegame, tutorials, customizable flags, Mk2 and Mk3 parts, planets besides Kerbin, VAB upgrades, or access to the game's mods. None of these are very expensive: it is possible to have a complete playing experience for less that $75.00 USD. Unfortunately, this payment must be renewed each update to maintain the features you have bought and the missions you have accomplished.

Microtransactions will be encouraged. Did you run out of fuel or electricity halfway to the Mun? We're now offering you more for just pennies on the dollar. Quicksaving and quickloading will also be available at low cost. For a slightly greater fee, the game can automatically land your craft wherever you choose, or return it back home safely.

KSP will now be programmed in Java. While this may break many mods, it will nonetheless yield better integration among all platforms. While this was one of the most debated moves for 1.2, we have agreed that this change must be made sooner or later.

A rather aggressive DRM will be added to KSP. It is important that we regularly check to make sure that KSP was legally purchased and not copied from other computers or altered by users. Because the game could be altered or copied at any time, DRM will always be on and connected to the Internet.

As you can probably tell, this update will take time to complete. Thus, to make the update available sooner, we are taking less time to tweak the game and fix bugs than we otherwise would. We are also temporarily scrapping a stable 64-bit version, ISRU, the planned aerodynamics overhaul, and really every feature we planned to implement for 1.0. These features will likely be available on a future version of KSP for another small fee.

~~~

"You seemed to be rushed in your release of 1.0 (now 1.2). Why?"

We're extremely proud to announce that we've got a contract to merge with EA shortly after the release of our first non-early-access version. While we will still be the main force working on KSP, we will honor all of EA's decisions as well. This collaboration should hopefully result in a better and more complete game.

~~~

"Will everything continue in more-or-less the same way after this merger?"

There will be some recognizable differences. For example, the Daily Kerbal, including Devnote Tuesdays, will not be continued. The number of moderators here on the Forum will also be reduced significantly. Flamewars, inappropriate arguments and the like will be tolerated, though not recommended. Hopefully this will not result in a significant amount of problems on the Forum.

~~~

"Anything else you would like to say?"

This one was for you, KasperVld.

~~~

EDIT:

Now that it's been about six hours since I posted this, I'm strongly compelled to give some sort of moral to the story. So here we go.

SQUAD isn't perfect, but they're doing the best that they can.

Don't get me wrong: I disagree with some of SQUAD's choices too. I really don't think that they should be rushing into 1.0, for example. But they're trying to be the best people they can be to their community and to their game.

Every single thing I mentioned has been done by multiple game developers before, from expensive upgrades to absolutely back-breaking DRMs. And, as absurd as it sounds, this sort of thing could have happened in Kerbal Space Program as well. But it didn't.

Instead, SQUAD released astoundingly good updates. It cultivated an online community among the best in the world. It won awards, it became well-known, and it inspired thousands of people to become a little more interested in spaceflight. And, well, I don't think that everyone really appreciates SQUAD's efforts as much as they could. There have been loads of people who criticize SQUAD far more than they praise it, and I don't feel like that's really right.

So, without being too mushy, I just wanted to say that creating this thread really helped me appreciate this, and I hope that you feel the same way.

Anyways, I'll get off my little soap-box, now. Thanks for taking a moment to listen.

I've added this to the Original Post, now. I hope you don't mind... you probably figured out it was an April Fool's day joke long before now.

-Upsilon

[Oh, and now I'm beginning to feel bad because I didn't actually talk to HarvestR, and I have no idea whether he would approve of this post ]

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the EA merge thing would truly explain the rush to 1.0.....hmmm how about adding that all of us will have to buy the game once more because EA said so and they are the boss now and own us and install steam,origin and another spacial squad program for all of it's game

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I thought they were going to add a legal office to deal with rocket crashes and kerbal astronauts' deaths, along with lobbying stratergies and a whole politics system that works along with reputation to secure both funding and support from the kerbal populace?

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One of our hallmarks of this new update is our increased respect for the advertising industry. KSP will now implement pop-up ads after recovering or before launching a vessel. These will be tailored to each KSP player's individual wants and needs, based on their browser history, the documents on their computer, and by intermittently taking pictures of them through their webcams.

Now come on, we all know that they won't be implementing popup ads.... but will be using subliminal advertisement in the form of backwards spanish-speaking kerbals. This, in cooperation with Google, will collect massive amounts of data and convince you, subliminally, to buy things you never knew you needed. Why, even now I realize that I should purchase an external altimeter and gyroscope for use in KSP; now on sale at http://www.kspstore.google.com